Thursday, 15 November 2018

SoundOut 2019 Artists bios

SoundOut 2019 Artists bios

Birgit
Ulher: trumpet Germany

Birgit Ulher studied the visual arts,
which still have an important influence on her music. Since moving to Hamburg
in 1982 she has been involved in free improvisation and experimental music.
Since then she has developed an individual musical language. She works mainly
on extending the sounding possiblities of the trumpet and has developed her own
extended techniques and preparations for producing these sounds. Besides this
material research she is especially interested in the relation between soundand
silence. Since 2006 she works with radiosounds, she uses extended speakers, fed
with radio noise in her trumpet mutes. The trumpet functions as an acoustic
chamber and modulates the radio noise, thus the trumpet is transmitter and
receiver at the same time. Her solo work contents pieces with tape (Traces and
splitting 21, a collaboration with Michael Maierhof) as well as pieces for
sound installations like 'Reveille' for the sound- and lightinstallation 'Wake
Up' by Allora & Calzadilla. She performs solo and with her working
ensembles, collaborations with dancers, visual artists, composers and one-time
collaborations with musicians from around the world. Lectures and Workshops: at
Haifa University; SAIC - School of The Art Institut of Chicago; Hochschule für
Musik Basel; The Queen's University in Belfast; Galeria Mérida, Mexico and
Anahuac 33 in Mexico City. Collaborations with Ute Wassermann, Lucio Capece,
Gino Robair, Bill Hsu, Leonel Kaplan, Felipe Araya, Christoph Schiller, Chris
Heenan, Gregory Büttner, Forbes Graham and the Stark Bewölkt Quartet (with
Michael Maierhof, Heiner Metzger and Gregory Büttner) amongst others.
Soloproject 'Radio Silence No More'. Concerts and festivals in Europe, USA,
South America, Russia and the Middle East. Numerous CD releases.

www.birgit-ulher.de

Brian McNamara: electronic Sound
art, Canberra

Brian is an experimental instrument builder and sound sculpture
artist based in Canberra, Australia. He mixes his passions for music,
electronics and sculpture into unique objects that should need no explanation
to play or experience but convey a deeper meaning in the context of their
surroundings. Brian builds and performs with a range of experimental instruments,
with a focus on both autonomous soundart sculptures and interactive
installation instruments that require the engagement of multiple people or
unusual kinetic movements to be played. His instruments include computer
programmed elements, percussion, found sounds from used electronics and purpose
designed oscillators.A key feature of
his work is audience movement and participation. Art functions best when the
art space is inclusive of the public so through his exploration of experimental
sounds he uses engagement with the audience as a medium to convey ideas. These
explorations include the link between the environment and technology, our own
movement around the planet with movement of those fleeing war torn areas and
the link between our own minds and those we try to create in machines. https://www.facebook.com/cupandbow/

Brodie McAllister: Trombonist,
Brisbane

Brodie
is an improviser, trombonist, composer, teacher and events organiser from
Brisbane, Australia. His artistic practice is concerned with exploring
improvisation, hyper-extended instrumental techniques, intensive
performer-composer collaboration and community connection. Some career
highlights include: premieres from Kupka’s Piano, WAYJO and The Enthusiastic
Musicians Orchestra with performances alongside ELISION, Clocked out and The
Stairwell Project. Recently he took part in some projects that were personal
milestones, these projects include: Performing the world premiere of Ben Mark’s
Circular Ruins 1/2/3, launching his first solo album “Tiny Particle Collider”
through Made Now Music performing on Lawrence English's Cruel Optimism and
releasing Rogue Three’s debut album “no Meat on Bumblebees” also through Made
now Music. https://youtu.be/5kzMar9YBLo

Christian Marien, drums, SUPERIMPOSE, Germany

Christian
Marien moved to Berlin in 2000, where he quickly established a reputation in
the Jazz scene as a co-founder of groups including, “Olaf Ton“ and “Stereo
Lisa“. More and more he turned towards free improvised music, and has since
collaborated with a multitude of leading improvisers, including Frank
Gratkowski, Johannes Bauer, and Gebhard Ullmann, Jürgen Kupke. His interest in
other forms of artistic expression has lead to collaborations with visual
artists (Thomas Bratzke, Philip Wiegard), actors (Judith Strößenreuter) and
dancers (Hans-Werner Klohe, Kadir “Amigo” Memis, Julyen Hamilton), and the
project “Ritsche, Zast & Marien“ (which combines improvisation in music and
painting) curates regular exhibitions and performances. He is part of the Duo
Superimpose along with Matthias Muller.

Clayton Thomas is a bassist who has dedicated
himself wholly to the pursuit of improvisation, studying with master bassists
Wilber Morris and Henry Grimes in New York and Peter Kowald in Germany. He has
performed around the U.S., Europe, Australia and New Zealand with three
generations of improvisers – including Alexander von Schlippenbach, Axel
Dörner, Johannes Bauer, Sonny Simmons, Marilyn Crispell, Jon Rose, Jim Denley,
Newton Armstrong, Tim O’Dwyer, Sabir Mateen, Daniel Carter, Mike Pride, Mary Halvorson,
Tony Buck and Makigami Koichi amongst many others. His use of extended
techniques and extreme physicality give his music unexpected dimension. He is
also an active grass roots organiser, founding the „now now festival“ of
improvised music and the regular concert series „if you like improvised music,
we like you“ as well as the 30-piece electro-acoustic ensemble „The splinter
orchestra“. Clayton lived in Berlin from 2007 to 2014.

C o r F u h l e r, described by the ABC as ‘A Modern Day
Renaissance Man’, is an interdisciplinary eclectic musician, improviser,
composer, sound artist, multi instrumentalist, instrument builder, inventor,
visual artist, researcher and scholar whose practice crosses into installation,
visual art, dance, puppetry, comic strip, music theatre and site-specific
performance. He is a conservatorium trained pianist, guitarist and experimental
electronics player, and is renowned for his pioneering extended piano
techniques and his invention the keyolin, a hybrid violin and piano. He often
functions as axle between various art forms: he has written scripts,
choreographies and music for theatre, radio plays, dance and puppetry.
Cor has a preference for juxtaposing old and new technologies (from super
8 film to the latest digital software) and he has composed for ethnic
instruments, western instruments, self built devices and various electronic
media. In his work, he puts a strong emphasis on awareness of acoustic and
visual phenomena at a specific time and place. He has been the artistic
leader of his own ensembles (e.g., Corkestra, Wayang Detective,
Fuhler/Bennink/de Joode, Cortet and solo), he toured internationally (Europe,
Canada, USA, Japan, etc.) and released over 50 CDs, mostly with his own works
and artistic concepts. After a two-year research period Cor attained his PhD
in composition in 2016 at the University of Sydney (with supervision by
composer Damien Ricketson) and is now an active researcher with special
interest in the relationship improvisation-composition, compositional
multiplicity, corporeal kinetic installations, Fluxus, magic and mystery in
art, and acoustic ecology. In 2017 he published his book Disperse and
Display (which demonstrates a holistic approach to his research on modular
compositional techniques and extended instrumental techniques) and he started
working at the Conservatorium of Music in Hobart and the Sydney Conservatorium
of Music; here he partly lectures composition, improvisation and ensemble as
well as marks composition students’ essays. In 2018 Cor started a position as
senior lecturer in sound and creative media studies at the SAE Creative Media
Institute in Sydney."Sun Ra,
Braxton, Mengelberg: in their different ways each is a genius at organizing
organic, half-composed, half-improvised group music. Theirs are big footprints
to walk in, but Cor Fuhler has big shoes of his own." Corkestra liner
notes, Kevin Whitehead

Hannah
is a flutist,
improviser, composer, conductor, and curator. She is a co-artistic director of
Brisbane-based contemporary art music ensemble Kupka’s Piano, and a founding
member of improvisation trio Rogue Three (Brisbane/Melbourne: flute/s,
trombone, and recorder/s) and electro-acoustic duo Richard&Linda with Liam
Flenady (flute/s, electric guitar, and live electronics). She has performed in
international festivals including ManiFESTE (Paris), IMD (Darmstadt, DE), SPOR
(Aarhus, DK), Kunstenfestival des Arts (Brussels), BIFEM (Bendigo, AU), Totally
Huge New Music Festival (Perth), and the Queensland Music Festival (Brisbane).
Hannah is a current PhD candidate at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith
University, exploring a queer-feminist thinking of free improvisation,
featuring the work and voices of women and non-binary folk practicing in the
field. She blogs at stayandmakekin.wordpress.com and more of her work can be found on
her website hannahreardonsmith.com.

Laura
is a clarinetist, improviser and composer, born and based in Sydney, Australia.
She has been an important voice on the Sydney improvised music scene since
2007, playing with groups such as The Splinter Orchestra and Prophets, and
collaborating with many other Australian and international musicians. Laura
has toured Australia and Europe with a range of projects including the
internationally renowned trio ‘Great Waitress’, featuring Monica Brooks on
accordion and Berlin-based pianist Magda Mayas, who also have several acclaimed
CD and LP releases to their name. As a composer, Laura writes both instrumental
and electro-acoustic music. She has had
works commissioned and performed by various ensembles in including Sydney
Antiphony and Ensemble Offspring and has developed exploratory pieces for
primary school students. She has more recently been exploring sound
installations. Laura also plays clarinet in and composes for
folk/balkan/jazz ensemble Chaika.Laura
has and continues to organise exploratory music events in Sydney, including the
NOW now Series and Festival of Exploratory Music from 2010 until 2013, and the
current Nights at Tempe series. She has co-founded the Sydney exploratory music
calendar www.emus.space. https://youtu.be/-oFRznISths

Lenny Preston, Drums,Canberra

Lenny is a brilliant drummer/percussionist based in Canberra, Australia. He has been doing a solo drum/guitar singer metal "band" for many years called "Leisure Suit Lenny" to rave reviews. In the last couple of years has been experimenting and dappelling in the avant garde jazz world doing music to silent films and working in such things as a production of John Zorn's Cobra, as well fill-in in a experimental free improvisational trio EMSC for Millie Watson with Rhys Butler and Richard Johnson.

Marlene Radice: clarinet, Canberra

Marlēné Radice is a Canberra based
composer/improviser who specialises in notated electroacoustic composition by
exploring how art and sound compliment one another. Taking recorded sounds away
from their original sources, she processes and manipulates these into new
musical structures. Raw industrial noises, looped voices and hypnotic
soundscapes are layered to create a nuanced and original sound.Marlēné’s music has been performed and
recorded by Fbi Radio’s Ears Have Ears program (NSW), the Sonic.Art Quartet
(Berlin), The Music Box Project (NSW), Art Not Apart Festival (ACT), COUP
(VIC/ACT), Feminatronic, Future Creatives Festival (VIC), Monash New Music
Ensemble (VIC) as well as her electronic duos Erwartung (NSW) and A S P I R A T
O R (VIC/ACT). She has been commissioned as a sound designer and composer for
Canberra’s National Museum of Australia in 2017 and Questacon in 2013. She
interns for Making Waves; an online platform which promotes emerging Australian
composers, and is on the committee for the Tilde New Music and Art Festival
(VIC). https://youtu.be/Lw12DuInwQE

Matthias Müller has been
living in Berlin since 2004, playing regularly with internationally recognised
improvisers such as John Edwards, Mark Sanders, Johannes Bauer, Tobias Delius,
Olaf Rupp, Burkhard Beins, Frank Paul Schubert, Clayton Thomas, Michael
Vorfeld, Axel Dörner, and many more. He can be heard on more than thirty
releases, and his CD „Bhavan“ (2004) was produced by Chicago-based musician and
journalist John Corbett. Müller is a member of the 24-piece improvising
ensemble “Splitter Orchester“, and was also a member of the “German-French
Jazzensemble“, under the direction of Albert Mangelsdorff. In addition, he is
also active in the field of contemporary music. He is part of the Duo
Superimpose along with Christian Marien.http://matthiasmueller.net/superimpose

Melanie Herbert: violin, Sydney

Melanie creates site specific multi
speaker compositions. Using manipulated field recordings and instrumental
improvisations she fits her installations, like a glove, to space and time. As
a violinist Melanie's playing is naive - she refuses to know the instrument in
a systematic way, instead developing her own unique relationship to the violin
by freely exploring and improvising with it - largely within Splinter Orchestra
since 2011. https://melanieherbert.net

Millie
Watson, piano, organ, sound objects, Canberra

Millie
is a graduate from ANU School of Music and apart-time member of the Canberra
Experimental Music Studio. She performs with piano/organ/objects and found
sound recordings that in turn inspire her live improvisation. Inspired by
Feldman, Cage, and Taylor Amelia’s style draws upon free improvisation and her classical
roots. She performs regularly around Canberra and has started working in the
free improvisation EMSC trio and well as her solo pop material that was
released on the 21st July 2018.https://ameliawatson.bandcamp.com/releases

Monika
Brooks, accordion, Sydney

Monica Brooks has modelled sound works, compositions, and
improvisations from piano, computer, field recordings, glasses, radio, and
accordion. As a performer she has collaborated with various fabulous folks such
as Jim Denley, Dale Gorfinkel, Herminone Johnson, Chris Abrahams, Robbie
Avenaim, Kraig Grady, Richard Nuns, Eugene Chadbourne and Joe Talia. She is
renowned for the subtlety of her approach on accordion with Magda Mayas and
Laura Altman in the trio Great Waitress.https://great-waitress.com/ and https://monicabrooks.bandcamp.com/

Pia Van
Gelder: electronics Sydney

Pia van Gelder is an electronic artist and
researcher. Van Gelder’s work involves designing and building electronic
instruments that are presented in performance and interactive installation
contexts. Her works investigate our relationships with technology and energy.Van Gelder has curated various festivals, art
events and exhibitions and has been involved with DIY spaces for the past
decade, particularly the Serial Space collective. She is the Overlord of Dorkbot Sydney, a regular meeting for people doing strange
things with electricity, whilst lecturing at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW in the School of Media Art. http://piavangelder.com/

Pierre-Yves
Martel, viola da gamba / objects , Quebec

Following a unique artistic path, Pierre-Yves Martel is constantly
renewing his musical identity and practice. Though an instrumentalist, he
identifies himself first and foremost as a sound artist whose work oscillates
between research and experimentation. It is in this spirit that he has
revisited the viola da gamba, utilizing this traditional instrument in new
contexts and thus reengaging it with the contemporary world. Having created an
authentic musical language through non-conventional techniques and instrumental
preparations, he also works outside of instrumental music altogether, using a
variety of objects rife with new sonic possibilities, from contact-mics
and speakers to motors, wheels, surfaces textures.https://www.pymartel.com/main.cfm

Rhys has
come to know the cities he has lived in through improvised and noise music. The
trio Dinner Sock (Stephen Roach (drums), David Keyton (feedback), and Rhys
Butler (saxophones)) formed from the weekly Fugue State Sessions in Guanzhou.
The group performed with local experimenters such as Yan Jun, Feng Hao and Li
Zenghui and collaborated with musicians transiting China such as Uwe Bastiansen
(Faust) and Lucas Abela. Despite living in different corners of the world,
Dinner Sock has continued to participate in China's experimental music scene
and played Beijing's Sally Can't Dance festival and NOIShanghai in 2012. In
Santiago, Chile, Rhys participated in events run by Productura Mutante and
played in the free-for-all Collective Improvisation NO. Now residing in
Canberra, Rhys has been working in a duo with Reuben Ingall (live processing).
More recently he has been part of the Psithurism trio with John Porter and
Richard Johnson, which have a new release called Lure out with French
clarinetist Xavier Charles. See the SoundOut bandcamp and Francois Houle site
in the following links: https://soundoutrecordings.bandcamp.com/http://www.francoishoule.ca/franois-houle-psithurism-trio/

Richard Johnson: wind instruments – Canberra

Richard performs with the texture of sound on
soprano/baritone saxophone and bass clarinet and is experimenting with use of a
bass drum with soprano saxophone to create a language of microtonal textural
resonance. Also he has been making instruments from conical gourds from PNG,
which allow the stripping back of the wind instruments to their most visceral
and most sensuous form and allow for the exploration of extended techniques. He
has performed at the SoundOut 2010 – 2016 festivals; What is Music Festival,
Nownow Festival; the Make it Now performances; also performances with the Brice
Glace Ensemble and the 102 Club Orkestra in Grenoble France; “Whip it“ series
in Sydney; various Precipice annual Improv workshops hosted by Tony Osbourne as
well as hosting local/interstate/international improvisation nights in
Canberra. He is the Director/Curator/Producer/Administrator at SoundOut
festivals. As a sound artist he worked with renowned visual Artist
Savanhdary Vongpoothornfor the Australia Exhibition at The
Casula Power House as well collaborated with conceptual-visual artist Denise
Higgins on soundscapes. He has performed with the likes of Jaap Blonk, Jon
Rose, Hans Koch, Guylaine Cosseron, Jim Denley, Kim Myhr, Annette Giesreigl,
Rodrigo Motoya, Antonio Panda Gianfratti, Thomas Rohrer, Luc Houtkamp, Clayton
Thomas, Isaiah Ceccarelli, Yan Jun, Laura Altman, Michael Norris, Evan Dorian,
etc. Currently performs in a wind trio with John Porter and Rhys Butler called Psithurism, which has a digital release
with the renowned Canadian clarinetist Francois
Houle and a new Cd release called
Lure on the SoundOut label with
Xavier Charles in 2017 SO-003. Also in June 2016 released Cd with Rhys
Butler; Guylaine Cosseron and Stephen Roach called Swarm on SoundOut Cd’s
SO-001. Lure CD Review:http://www.freejazzblog.org/2018/06/recent-releases-of-french-clarinetist.html

His unrelenting explorations of non-idiomatic
improvisation using trumpets, clarinet, vibrating speakers, egg cutters etc.,
made him one of the most active experimental musicians in Prague these days. During
autumn and winter of 2016 he released six albums including Resonators (with George Cremaschi and
Irene Kepl) on Another Timbre, Torschlusspanik by Poisonous Frequencies
on Meteorismo and duo with Yan Jun on Kandala records.Intensive collaboration arose from meeting
with American musician/composer George Cremaschi (doublebass, electronics) with
whom they established Prague Improvisation Orchestra, Los Amargados duo, an international
dance-visual-music project Arthuur etc. In 2013 they released “Villa K” album and 2014 “Los
Amargados with Susanna Gartmayer”, limited MC with comics.In 2010 Petr became one of the founding
members of improvisation ensemble IQ+1 which
released in 2011 highly acclaimed CD “tváří v tvář” and in 2013 IQ+1 (released
by Polí5), album which was nominated for Czech Vinyla Prize 2013. In 2011
he constituted Yanagi duo with Korean experimenter Ryu Hankil (alarm clock,
typewriters). A year later they released their first album “clinamen” waiting
for its second album to be released in Korea. He is also member of psych-rock
band Rouilleux.During past years he started and still continues many projects: Poisonous Frequencies (with Federsel and DD Kern), NOIZ (with
Thomas Lehn and Tiziana Bertoncini), Doppeltrio (with Maja Osojnik and Matija Schellander), Junk & the Beast (with Veronika Mayer) etc. Among
others Petr has recorded or played with musicians like Xavier Charles, Isabelle
Duthoit, Kai Fagaschinski, Franz Hautzinger, Chris Heenan, Matthew Goodheart,
Irene Kepl, Christof Kurzmann, Seijiro Murayama, Ivan Palacký, Ingrid
Schmoliner, Jaroslav Šťastný (aka Peter Graham), Miro Tóth, Michael Zerang
etc.